


misery loves company

by queermermaids



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Nile Freeman-centric, POV Alternating, Temporary Character Death, they feel each other's deaths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:07:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26054689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queermermaids/pseuds/queermermaids
Summary: "I don't want to be alone. I can't keep dying alone." Nile whispered.Booker pushed her hair away from her eyes, and stared deep into them, "You aren't alone, I'll be right here."Or alternatively: There was nothing about Nile's new life that was normal, so feeling Booker die as though it was happening to her wasn't that much of a shock.What was a shock would be to learn that this, he, and her were special.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman
Comments: 17
Kudos: 172
Collections: Book of Nile Collection!





	misery loves company

**Author's Note:**

> I took some liberties with canon just so I could fit some more shared deaths in, hopefully throughout the fic it is not too noticeable!
> 
> Enjoy!

The first couple of days being immortal are a blur where Nile doesn't notice an interesting facet of her gift until much later. There were some clues, when she asked about what they felt when she died.

Nicky answered, "We didn't feel you die, only Booker did, we just saw your face, your badge, and that's how Andy found out where you were."

She nodded then, and asked about what Joe and Nicky had felt when they killed each other and came back. The conversation didn't go back to her.

For the next few missions, with breaks in between for Andy to recuperate, she was barely injured. Shot yes, stabbed yes, pushed out of a 2 story window yes, but her injuries healed enough that she was never stopped, and got right back to busting some heads. 

Their next mission however, she saw the gleam from the sniper rifle too late to get Andy away from its range and had to jump in front of it.

She was shot in the neck, and was bleeding out faster than her body could heal as Andy dragged her under cover. It was so much like her first death, she panicked and struggled against Andy's hold. She thought back to her hand in the fire, minuscule compared to this. 

Booker's words, "Just because you keep living doesn't mean it stops hurting," flashed in her head. The cave, was cooler than concrete in the summer sun.

It hurt, it hurt a lot to die this way. She couldn't see Andy, she was behind her holding her hand to her neck, trying to save her. She couldn't see anyone, just hear a woman scream that she's been shot, by a shooter on the roof. She didn't want to die alone, even if she came back, it was too much to feel this alone. Choking on blood and losing sensation in everything below her head, Nile dies in an alleyway on hot cement during the day, and Booker wakes up tasting blood in his mouth at night, thousands of miles away.

It's been nearly a year since the last time he felt Nile die. It had been so long that he just assumed it was a fluke, some residual effect from the shared dreams. He was ready to forget this one too, but as he brushed the taste of her blood out of his mouth with toothpaste, Booker realized he couldn't. He had to stop running away from his problems and face them head on. There was no going back, he told Nile in the cave, only forward to face a new reality. He sighed and washed his mouth out.

He splashed some water into his face, and went to get his computer. He remembered some things from the vision, a food stall, summer heat, and the last image before Nile died was of some alleyway. He closed his eyes, trying to visualize anything more that would help him narrow down where they were.

It wasn't a visual he caught onto, but a voice in the crowd after Nile was shot. "Atirador de elite! Ela foi baleada!" Portuguese, they were in Brazil.

A quick search confirmed his suspicion, an article coming up describing a marketplace shooting where a woman was shot and was surprisingly ok. The police were there very early and there were only a few more shots by the shooter. No one else was harmed, nothing about a middle aged woman dying and Booker breathed out.

He unlocked his phone and sent the article to Nile's number through text. Holding the text box open, he asked after her.

_'Heard this happened, how are you doing Nile?'_

He checked the time and realized how early it was in France. Wincing he hoped Nile wouldn't notice, and ask exactly how he learned of this in the middle of the night.

He winced again, and put his head in his hands groaning when he realized he may have just went against their wishes and contacted them before the 100 years were up. However, Nile had texted him a thanks after they received Booker's new ID for them. He quadruple checked them to make sure they were up to snuff and had Copley CIA check them as well, if they ever needed to identify themselves to the law. Their old ones, pretty much all of their old ones at least going back to 2000 were burned by his betrayal of them to Merrick, and he needed to make it up. She didn't have to tell him thanks, but from that he assumed texting would not ruin their judgment for him.

Thinking about Merrick, he remembered how he felt Nile die when she pushed both herself and Merrick out the penthouse window. Booker has fallen out of windows before, but the invention of the skyscraper made those falls much more painful and deadly. 

He had felt it as though he was the one falling 50 plus stories and landing on a car, not her. His whole body broken, spine, ribs, arms, collarbone, hip, skull, all smashed on the car. When she made impact Booker had to take a knee in the penthouse, trying and failing to breathe through the pain he wasn't actually experiencing first hand. By the time he got up and caught up with everyone else at the elevator it was open, and he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed willing his body to stop feeling so boneless. 

The elevator took a while, and he was trying so hard to not show how much pain he was in he didn't notice the tension that could be cut with a knife. Joe wasn't looking at him, he was watching the floor numbers go by and tapping out his annoyance through his foot and through his fingers tangled in Nicky's. Nicky was tending to Andy, noting that her stitches had ripped, and she had started bleeding again. Andy was looking at Booker with a sorrowful expression, but then paid attention to what Nicky was saying about putting pressure on her wound.

Joe was right, the fall was faster than the elevator. That did not mean the fall didn't hurt. Booker helped Nile out of the car and held her weight because he knew how much pain she was in. 

No one else seemed to be affected, so this had to be something that wore off. He didn't remember Andy being affected by his early deaths when she found him, though those were mostly hypothermia and malnutrition. Now nearing the one year anniversary of his betrayal and Nile's first death, he was still feeling her die.

After his exile was given he tried not to think about it. Went on an extensive tour of all of his alcohol stores around Europe in what may have been the worst bender he's ever had. He woke up in dumpsters, police stations and in morgues. He tried to not think of any of them, but especially not Nile. Who wanted for him to just apologize with sincerity, which he had abounds of. Her, sunshine personified. 

In some ways he's perfectly fine with the separation, he wanted to follow anything that would give him penance for the biggest mistake of his too long life. And also because Nile had helped breathe new life into him he couldn't imagine having two years ago where he met Copley and planned out his family's imprisonment. If she looked at him the way she did as sitting inside the pub every single day forever he would burn up from the radiance of her spirit. And he wanted to, badly.  
  


It's why he texted her, and it's why he's feeling more anxious than ever over a single text. 

  
  


She responded after an hour. He immediately opened it up before realizing he may have nothing to add and she just gets the read script as a response.

_'Thanks! Sent this to Copley and he's working on changing some records.'_

Shit. Booker has nothing to add. He sends back a simple, _'great'_.

Nothing from Nile for a good 10 minutes, and he thinks the conversation is over. The only interaction he's going to have with anyone today as he plans on watching them on security cameras and drinking alone in his apartment, and it's done in 3 texts. That was fine, he tried and failed to convince himself. 

Then he sees that Nile was typing.

She sends a picture of her shirt on her bed, completely stained with her blood.

_'Nicky took the shooter out before he could get Andy, but not before he ruined one of my favorite shirts. 😑'_

Booker breathed out a little laugh at the emoji and responded.

_'R.I.P._ 😔 _'_

Completely around the world, Nile laughed at Booker's text. She looked around but in their safe house Nicky was cleaning his rifle, Andy was in the washroom looking conflicted over a bottle of stain remover and the pants Nile bled onto, and Joe was reading by the window. No one was paying attention to what she was doing on her phone. 

That did not mean much because she still felt a little hesitant about laughing at the image of Booker making that face to her in person. She could never keep secrets from them, whenever she felt pensive and grief stricken by missing her family, someone always noticed and talked to her. Whenever she was on her phone, they looked interested, assuming it was Copley. And they couldn't keep secrets from her. Their concept of privacy has not caught up to the modern world, and even with the immortality, the greatest shock living and fighting with them was the absence of that.

For nearly a year, she's brought Booker up while asking questions about her new immortality. Always quiet mentions, to test the waters and see if they were ready to talk about the guy they've known longer than Nile has, and ever will when it comes to Andy. Separation makes the heart grow fonder, and for everyone it made the anger and pain lessen. She was happy to see it, but there was a lot unspoken about exactly how much they were not supposed to talk to him. 

Might as well just ask to make sure that they don't feel like their wishes had been infringed, she had no ill will towards him as he didn't break her trust, but she didn't want them to be pissed at her. 

She took a breath and walked into the kitchen to sit next to Nicky. "Booker texted me, said I made the news as a miraculous survivor of the shooting," She said, loud enough for Andy to hear in the other room. She by now was just dumping the stain remover on her pants, but there was nothing that would save them. 

Nicky hmm'd and looked up from his rifle, and gestured to the gun oil next to Nile's elbow. She hands it to him, and he continues his cleaning with no other response to what Nile said.

Joe peaks his head in from the living room, "Did you send that to Copley yet? He needs to cover that up."

"Just did."

Joe nods and goes back to sitting down near the window, opening his book again.

Nicky starts while not looking up, "Is it not late in France? Tell him to go to bed."

Nile smiles, "Sure."

Andy walks through the kitchen to throw her soaked pants and the empty stain remover bottle away. "Say we're doing fine."

"Ok, it is fine that I'm texting him right?" 

Joe peaked his head around the corner again, "Of course, you don't have to ask."

"Well I just didn't want to go over the whole 100 years."

"Well," Nicky turns to look at Joe, "Just-"

Andy cuts Nicky off, "Just don't rub it in our faces."

"I won't."

She goes back to her room and folds up the ruined shirt so she can sit on the bed, texting Booker back.

_'lol yeah'_

_'How's your night going?'_

Ah damn, caught out. He doesn't want to explain that his night was going well, that he had drunk enough to have nebulous dreams he couldn't remember only to wake up after feeling her die firsthand. 

_'good, and I'm going to bed soon. just wanted to see how you all ended up.'_

Booker almost regrets saying that because he wants to keep talking to Nile, but he is tired, and sleeping at night was smarter than sleeping during the day.

Nile didn't want to feel disappointed, but she did. She's pretty much only been talking to the same 4 people for the last year and it was nice to get some outside contact, that wasn't just civilians. Now that she's got the go ahead to keep in touch with him, she wants to keep it going, but time zones are going to be a problem.

_'We're fine, thanks for asking! I hope you have a good rest of your night Book'_

_'you too'_

_'Thanks!_ 😊 _'_

She doesn't get a response. Turning her phone off, she hears Joe start making dinner and goes to help him out.

  
  


He wakes up to a texted photo from her, like a postcard he would send everyone when they were apart throughout the last century, once photography was popularized. It's a picture of her down in Brazil, from the looks of it running with Joe. He was in the background looking out of breath, the sunrise behind them. 

He smiles, zooms in on Joe's face and looks for things that are different. His hair is shorter, so his curls are smaller, and his beard was longer. He looked absolutely exhausted, with his eyes closed, but Nile looked happy to be there. Her hair was in the same braid style he last saw her in, though tighter to her head, and was grinning right into the camera. Her smile competing with the sunrise behind them for the title of true brilliance. 

She texted with it a _'Good Morning!'_

Thinking about her smile for the rest of the day, he decided to not spend it wallowing and stalking them through security cameras. Instead he got dressed and went supply shopping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am about halfway done with this fic, but it has officially surpassed 10k and it needed to be cut up into chapters. My college semester starts on Monday, so I can't make any guarantees about when I'll update, but I am almost done with chapter 2!
> 
> Let me know what you think so far!


End file.
